Rhee's tough advice falls flat with some in Tampa
It was only a week ago that Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee co-authored anOutlook piece with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty that expressed pride in their accomplishments but also acknowledged that they "fell short" in building broad community support for school reform.
"The lessons learned from that weakness, however, can become a strength. We reach out today to ask the entire community to embrace the school reform efforts in the months and years ahead," they wrote.
Maybe that note of regret made it into Rhee's comments to an audience of urban school administrators in Tampa Friday at a conference of the Council of the Great City Schools. But it didn't make it into an account of the session in The St. Petersburg Times, which called her "a one-woman wrecking crew, a miracle worker or the quintessential 'mean girl' in American education reform." Rhee described her turbulent three and-a-half-year tenure, which included the firing and lay offs of hundreds of teachers, some for poor performance.
"Be prepared to be Ms. or Mr. Unpopular. I am really good at this one